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Show 442 SOURCES OF INFORMATION. which they wished that the matter should be explained; and, as I also availed myself of the same means of answering them and questioning them, so could I not be left in doubt of the points of the compass, of the nations, of their situations, and by signs quite plain, of their friendship or hostility, style of dress, and other characteristics. Of the same means I availed myself to improve upon my information of the most distant ( nations) in all directions; that Indians are naturally very intelligent is confirmed by repeated experiences, in which they never err, and anyone can rely in every respect upon what they say. 1 These and other considerations have impelled me to complement with these Reflections the principal matters of my Diary concerning all the information that 1 The construction of this sentence seems to me involved, and I may not have translated it literally, though the sense appears clear. Its stands thus: " De este mismo medio me valia para adelantar las noticias de las mas distantes por todos rumbos, en lo que son mui inteligentes los Indios a lo natural confirmado con repetidas experiencias, en que nunca yerran, y puede fiarse qualquiera en el particular por lo que ellos dezen." Supposing that I have given the sense of the passage with substantial accuracy, I think Garces overconfident in what he says, for two reasons: first, he may not always have understood what the Indians tried to tell him; and secondly, Indians are notorious adepts in parrying questions and throwing one off the track when they wish to do so. |
